Protégé: Rising
by The Reviewess
Summary: Yuuhi Azula has successfully become a ninja. Naruto is becoming a bender and the Dynamic Duo is off to create mass chaos for Konoha. Watch them rise through the shinobi ranks like the ancient Dragons in the sky. Sequel to : Protégé: Abandoned.
1. Catch it if you can!

**Welcome to Rising! If anyone was curious why I ended Abandoned like that, its because Azula was no longer abandoned. She was taken in by someone who would treat her right and love her etc. All that Jazz. Now Rising is about Azula rising through the ranks, duh. Rising will definitely be a lot longer than Abandoned with a few different sagas (I think that's the word). This first saga is Azula as a Genin. It will be a few chapters long and then I'll start the next saga. I'm experimenting a bit with this if you couldn't tell.**

**Anyways, warnings for the Protege series: Yuri/Yaoi! (If nobody could tell, I like yuri/yaoi, deal with it... Yuri more than yaoi) Sakura bashing! (Yay!) Bashing in general! (More yay!) God!Azula (Because it's fun) Swearing by a child! And other stuff that I can't think of!**

**~Rising~**

It was a busy morning in the grand village of Konoha. The market was full of people buying food for their dinner, lunches and breakfast. Shops were opening and people were getting their daily shopping in. Kids were running around and enjoying themselves, playing with friends and their parents. Other kids were in the Academy studying up on being a ninja. Speaking of ninja, many of them could be seen just laying around the village and enjoying life. There seemed like they had no care in the world.

The village seemed peaceful and everyone was enjoying themselves except for a certain team of genin ninja. They certainaly cared about something at this point in time. One could tell by their faces that they were focused. They were running through the woods and on the tree branches in pursuit of something for a mission. They were all chasing something toward a certian spot in the woods.

"Izu left, Kote right. Cut it off." The girl in the center of the trio ordered. She had been leading the trio up till now when they took their seperate directions. Both shinobi took to the trees and when they were out of sight the girl added something. "Lead it to the trap." She said through the headsets they all had.

"Got it Hime." They both responded, they were way in front of her right now. The girl, Hime, was running on the ground. She was a young child, only eight years old at this time and on her 30th shinobi mission. The 30th boring mission. This girl had jet black hair pulled back in to the traditional hairstyle of her people, the topknot. She had pale perfect skin with the exception of six scars on her cheeks that resembles whisker marks. Her eyes were golden and she had perfectly pink lips. She had two swords strapped to her back which made her look a little intimidating.

"Hime, Target in position." The girl nodded and rushed the target into the trap the three genin made. Said target rain straight forward and fell right into the trap they set up.

"Reow!" The target was a cat. An angry orange cat. It was trapped in a net that the tree had set up using wires. The cat was trying to claw his way out but no avail.

The two boys who had cornered the cat earlier stepped out to meet their teammate. They were both eleven years old and quite lazy for ninja. Neither wanted to be team leaders, they left that to the youngest member, who was more intelligent than either of the two. One was a spiky haired brunette with white markings on his cheeks. The other has straight brown hair and he wore his headband like a bandana. Their names were Kotetsu and Izumo.

"Target Aquired Sensei." Kotetsu spoke into his mike.

A cough came from the other end, "Good job you three, nice plan Azula."

"Thanks Sensei." The youngest member, Azula responded. "You Izumo, you carry the cat."

"Why me?" Izumo complained as he walked over toward the cat. "Make Kotetsu do it!"

"Kotetsu used his clones to get the cat over here, he did more than you, so you carry the damn cat. Besides, he did it last time and I did it the time before that." Azula responded harshly, "Now you can deal with the scratches."

Kotetsu snickered at that. He had been attacked very badly by the cat. More than Azula, but she had also burned it so that made it stop. It was no secret to Team 8 that Azula could Firebend. Neither Kotetsu or Izumo were firbenders. Since they were both water users, they also bended water.

Izumo grabbed the cat and put it in a bag that he had thought of bringing. It was a pretty brilliant idea and now he wouldn't be scratched. "After we go turn this thing in, we are going to practice beinding right?" He asked the other two and his sensei (via mike).

Azula nodded, "I know I am. I dunno about you... not that I care."

Both boys on the team rolled their eyes and the trio started out of the forest. When they made it out, Their sensei, Hayate, was waiting for them. Hayate was a sickly looking man but he was also very dangerous. He had made his own sword style and was currently teaching all three of them to work with blades since they were all natruals. That was why they were put on the same team. The team quickly reported to the Hokage to turn in their mission.

"I forgot how crazy this lady is." Kotetsu muttered to Azula and Izumo. Both just nodded. The lady who owned the demon cat was crazy over it. She squeezed it as tight as she could and babied the stupid cat. They almost felt bad for it... Almost. Considering how many scratches and all the trouble they went through, three seperate times, the members of Team 8 Didn't feel sorry in the least.

After another five minutes of watching the poor pathetic cat getting squeezed to death, Team 8 was finally dismissed. There were many thank you's to the team who were known by name to the crazy cat lady. The second the team left the building, they turned to their sensei and awaited orders.

Cough. "Later." Was all he said before he shinshun'd outta there. The three genin stood there shocked. Hayate always gave them orders. They never had any sort of 'day off' or 'half day.' This was something new to them and also very strange.

"What" Azula started

"The" Kotetsu followed

"Fuck?" Izumo finished. Both kids looked at him. "What? We're adults, we can swear!"

Kotetsu thought about that for a minutes. "Dang... I mean damn! He's right. Wait, that means we can drink too!" The genin bounced around excitedly at that statement. Izumo started bouncing around at that too. They were made for each other, which probably explains why they were best friends.

"Are you two seriously going to blow the cat chasing money on some fucking alcohol?" Azula asked calmly. Both boys stared at her in shock. They knew that she was the leader and all but she was still only eight years old. What eight year old drops the F-bomb so casually (Sure Izumo did just a moment ago but he was also eleven, three years older)? Azula did, that's who.

"Hell yeah!" Without another word, the two boys sped off to the nearest bar to waste their money on the liquor... or at least they would try too. Azula highy doubted that the money they had made today would equate to one drink from where they seemed to be headed to.

"Next theyre going to walk into the bad part of town." The princess mutteres as she walked to training ground number eight. It was still too early for the Academy to be let out so Naruto wasn't around... Unless he needed her help for a prank.

It didn't take long for Azula and Naruto to become best of friends and 'Siblings.' Like the Hokage said after Azula's second day in Konoha, those two hit it off well. The two went everywhere together, with a few exceptions like the bathrooms and classrooms in the Academy. Some went as far to call Naruto her Demon Prince. Everyone in Konoha knew she was a Princess. Ever since the Kusajin incident*, everyone found out of her royal stature. News traveled quickly here, or that's what Kurenai told her.

Azula had dropped the obasan part off of Kurenai's name. Now she was just Kurenai. The two females had a strange relationship. Sometimes Kurenai was mom, babying her like Ursa did to Zuko, making sure she had everything she needed and was showering the gril in hugs. And sometimes she was just... Kurenai, her friend Kurenai. Someone she could talk to and would reply honestly. Someone who wouldn't hide things without a good reason to. Kurenai always let her go stay at Naruto's house when she asked (mainly because of her arranged marriage but the girl didn't know that. Nor did she know that Grass Country was furious when the Marriage proposal for Kusijin Jun and her was rejected all in a few hours. News travels fast.) and she even let Naruto sleep over there. It was like the times when she would have her Fire Nation friends stay in the Palace.

'Who were they?' Azula asked herself as she ventured to the training ground. She had started to forget a lot about her homeland after living in Konoha for a while. Mainly it was because she didn't care. She didn't remember many people from there now a days. She remembered Zuzu, Father, Uncle, Ursa, a girl with a long braid in her hair and a girl with black hair that Zuzu liked. 'Ty lee and Mai! That's right!' She smiled, 'they were my friends. Like Naruto is my friend. Naruto is more like Ty Lee though. Ty Lee did everything for me. Anything I wanted. Naruto kinda does that.' She continued to compare Naruto to her Fire Nation friend. She was brought out of her musings when she head a familiar scream.

"TEME!" The voice yelled. Then mass chaos broke lose.

Azula had been walking by the Academy at the exact time that Naruto and his calss were outside practicing. With Azula's help, Naruto had mastered the Body Flicker jutsu and Substitution but he couldn't make a clone of himself very well. All of them were transparent and sickly looking. He could make the three required but they all sucked. Naruto didn't care though, he figured that he would get it with practice. Did he practice? No. He'd rather practice bending.

He could firebend they learned, but only when he was very emotional and ticked off to the max. He actually was an Airbender too, something Azula never had seen before (But who has seen a person who can bend two elements?). Mainly the boy practiced Airbending and trying to be like the monks... trying. He failed miserably at being peaceful and monk like. The bending was all he cared about anyway. Naruto was a decent bender. His movements were a bit choppy, but that was excpected with learning from a scroll. Azula had to help him smooth out the movements more and told him that he had to be peaceful and detach himself from problems, something that could be hard for him to do, especially around a certian black haired Uchiha. Like now.

Now, Naruto was attacking The Uchiha Sasuke. The boy was throwing punches that the black haired was having a bit of difficulty dodging. Naruto was getting quicker in his movements and more graceful. Azula could see this now that she wasn't fighting him. He still needed to control his anger and be at peace or else he wouldn't be a good airbender.

Soon jutsu's were being thrown into the fight. Naruto had landed a punch on Sasuke but he didged using the substitution jutsu. The Uchiha had even gone as far as to use his grand fireball technique. Well, he tried to. By this time, Azula was over the fence seperating her from the students. When Sasuke let the fireball loose, Azula was already between him and Naruto. She stopped the fireball using her own firebending skills.

A moment later, smoke cleared to show the two combatants and Azula between them. Sasuke was shocked that his fireball was stopped by a kid. He saw the headband but was still shocked. Naruto was grinning like and idiot when his 'sister' intervened.

"Naruto!" Came a shout from the oh so familiar voice of Mizuki, Azula's former sensei. "Sasuke!" He ran over to both kids and started scolding them for their fighting and how they shouldn't be doing that.

"Then why didn't you stop it, Mizuki-sensei." Azula asked cooly.

Mizuki looked at her. It seemed like he had forgotten that she was there. "I was watching the other students."

"So was Iruka-sensei." Azula replied, "you could have stopped them. Instead I had to. If I didn't, the precious Uchiha would have been dead." Now everyone was shocked. Azula had a lot of confidence in Naruto's abilities... of course she had been secretly training the boy in the art of bending... They didn't need to know that. "Not really. Naruto wouldn't kill anyone yet." Naruto wouldn't really kill anyone. Like the Airbenders (Shockingly), he valued life.

Mizuki cracked a grin and patted the girl on the back. "Great joke Hime-san. But we need to get back to class." The white haired sensei gestured for the two kids to join the group again. Azula stopped Naruto before he went over to them.

"Your attacks are getting better. Much smoother. You need to be more peaceful and don't let your anger get to you. It's alright to be angry but don't let it over power you. You know?" Naruto nodded, "I'll see you later. I'm gonna run to Ten Ten's family's shop today for sword care things before training." Naruto nodded, hugged his sister and left.

Azula hopped the fence and started back on her journey to the training grounds. It didn't really take long, mainly because she was thinking about her brother. When she first met him, he was an idiot and dead last. With her help now, he had jumped up a class (With Uchiha and Pinkie to his misfortune). She had no doubt that Naruto would be a Genin at eleven like her teammates.

When Azula got to the grounds, she was the only one there. Obviously. Her teammates were probably getting drunk or something and Hayate-sensei was probably trying to find something for that cold. She didn't mind, it meant that she could go all out in practice today. She had already gotten down half of the advanced katas and she was starting to notice her fire getting a lighter orange. Soon, if the legends were true, her fire would change color.

After some intense training for two hours (Bending, jutsus etc.), Naruto had come to her training grounds. "Weren't you going to go to the store?" He asked his sister who was laying on the ground after exhausting herself.

"Forgot." She said honestly from the ground.

"You should go. You looked like you were practicing without getting the proper care things that Ten Ten's dad told you to have." Naruto replied. Azula just flicked him off. She didn't feel like moving.

Naruto looked at his 'sister.' She had her soft red colored swords in her hands, one in each, her head was turned to the right and her breathing was ragged. Naruto knew that she over worked herself today. Again. This was actually normal for her. It was the only reason Azula had advanced so far on her own. Naruto wasn't as dedicated to his bending as Azula was, but he used a different style as well. He had almost gotten down all of the basics of airbending, something he was quite proud of. It had taken him six months to actually get the first form down, but after that, everything was a breeze, literally. He wasn't perfect, his emotions still controlled him but he could do it, that's all he cared about.

"Lets forget training and just go get some ramen." Azula considered this and stood up. She brushed the dirt off her clothes and nodded. Ramen sounded very good right now.

"Ramen sounds good." She decided. The two left the training grounds to walk to their favorite ramen shop.

"The Chunin exams are coming up. You entering?" Naruto asked on the way there.

"Nah. Sensei doesn't want us entering until we master our sword styles and we complete some C ranks... And Kurenai won't let me until she becomes jonin... which wont be long. I think the promotion will come very soon."

Naruto just nodded. "You'll tell me when you take a C rank away from the village right?"

"Always."

Naruto accepted this answer and decided to let the topic of missions drop. He wanted to enjoy the day with his 'sister'. And he would do that.

*** So I totally realized the morning when I reread the last chapter for Abandoned that the incident took place at least 12 hour before the arranged marriage. Oops. I'm not going to fix it because I'm lazy and it will let me have fun with it later. BWAHAHAHAAAA! Like making the boy's family angry for the proposal being rejected so that there will be some sort of drama later. Eh, whatever. News travels fast.**

**Enjoy!**


	2. Mission Time

**I'm back! Finally huh? So this is the start of my Mission Arc/Saga/Thing. Have fun reading this. I think when it starts to get to the end is when I started to get a little lazy. So, If anyone hasn't figured it out, I don't have spell check on my computer... So yeah, that's a problem. If anyone wants to correct my spelling... that be awesome.**

**Here you go though!**

Azula stood next to the Hokage and Kazekage. The great leaders were sitting in an arena where the last event of the chunin exams would be taking place. Down in the center of the arena was Genma who was chewing on his senbon, like usual. Kurenai was standing up in the box with Azula along with two other Sand shinobi, one named Baki and the other was a girl around Azula's age named Temari.

Temari stood next to Azula and the older shinobi stood of the other side of the chairs. While the two leaders where talking about nonsense crap that neither of the children cared about, the girls started talking about how they were excited to watch some butt kicking.

At the exams, there was a team from Grass Country. Azula hated Grass Country because of the little brat she met. Sure the boy was six years older than she, but he was still a brat. His two teammates were in the team plus the brat's younger brother. All of the Grass kids were paired up with either a Sand contestant or a Leaf one. Azula didn't care who they went against, she just wanted some butt kicking.

When the Grass team with Kusajin Jun had been barred from competing in the exams a few years ago, Azula had been targeted by an attack by them for revenge. Kurenai was there to protect her so nothing really happened because they fled the second they realized they would get in a shit load of trouble, but that caused Azula to hate Grass Country.

First in the ring was Inuzuka Hana against a Grass ninja.

"Let the butt kicking commence!" Azula and Temari yelled from the box.

* * *

><p>"That was a very good and quite successful Chunin Exams, don't you think Kurenai-san?" Hiruzen asked the red eyed chunin. Hiruzen hadn't really changed in the years, she may have gotten some more wrinkles but nobody really kept track anymore. The man was old.<p>

"I would think so, yeah." Kurenai responded. "Azula enjoyed the fights."

The Hokage smiled at that. "I noticed, she and young Temari were trying very hard to get as close to the action while still staying in the box."

Kurenai laughed at the memory of the two kunoichi leaning over the box to get a better view. Especially when the younger Kusajin was facing off against Inuzuka Hana in the semi finals. "I remember them both cheering for Inuzuka Hana for many matches. Until the final match." The final match was a Suna ninja versus Hana. The Inuzuka lost, but not by much. In the end, both shinobi became chunin so the girls were satisfied with that.

"Especially during the fights against Grass Country." Both ninja recalled the shouts coming from the two shinobi. Most of the time it involed one, or both, of them swearing and making rude gestures. The Village Leaders didn't stop either girl from doing so either. They seemed to be rather amused. The girls were more amusing than the fight itself. "Speaking of Grass Country, since they only have a few ninja here, they requested a team of Konoha Ninja to escort them home."

Kurenai looked at the Hokage strangely. Why he was telling her this she had no idea. The mission would easily be a C ranked mission, which she hardly did anymore. She didn't have a genin team at all to do one with either since she was only a chunin. "And you want me to go on it?" She asked in a confused tone. The chunin did a lot of A ranked missions now a day, the last time she had a C rank was before she had Azula in her life.

Hiruzen nodded, "I am in need of Hayate's skills for another mission." The Hokage explained. "And Hayate requested that Team Eight's next mission be a C ranked one. Unfortunately, since I have to take Hayate away for something, I need to find a jonin to take his place. Someone who knows how to deal with three bending ninja. I believe that Earth bending trumps water bending, am I correct?"

Kurenai raised an eyebrow, "Yes... Earthbending can beat water bending... Are you... promoting me to jonin so I can take Team Eight on an escort mission?"

"Right on the money there! Yes I am. It took me a very long time to come up with this decision but I thought that it was high time you became a jonin." Hiruzen said firmly. "And quite frankly, you have no choice in the matter. The Grass Country officials wanted Azula's team. Apparently the older Kusajin brother was there and saw Azula shouting in the box."

The newly promoted jonin hung her head. "We probably should have stopped her."

The Hokage meerly shrugged. "Probably. It was funny then, they made the fight more amusing. Sometimes when we get old, we forget consequenses of our actions."

Kurenai nodded at that. "Yeah, it was pretty hilarioius, I bet by the end of the year, Azula and Temari will have written at least ten letters to each- Wait a second! Did you just indirectly call me old?"

Hiruzen laughed, "No, but I could have. Oh! I also have one thing to add to your mission list. On your way back, I would like you to stop by and pick up Asuma, my son. I told him that a team of ninja will collect him soon to bring him home. Now you should go get ready for this mission. Team Eight will be here soon to be briefed and will meet you at the front gate in an hour and a half."

"Yes Hokage-sama." Kurenai shinshun'd out of the room and traveled back to her apartment to put her things together for the mission.

* * *

><p>Azula walked down the familiar road that led to the Academy. It was ten in the morning , or around that time anyway. The time didn't matter, what did matter was that she had to go speak with Naruto. Azula was one who did not go back on her promises. So when she was told today that she was going on a C Ranked mission that required her to leave the village, she ran home to pack (to find that everything was packed for her). Then she grabbed her things and walked to the Academy to talk to Naruto.<p>

She had promished her little brother that she would tell him whenever she would be out on a mission, like now. She was somewhat exceited to go on a C ranked mission, but she would have rathered gone anywhere but Grass Country. When she was told that she was going there, she almost screamed for her teammates to kill her.

It was no secret, especially after her behavior during the chunin exams, that she hated Grass Country with every fiber in her firebending body. if she could, she would burn the whole country to the ground faster than anyone could say Fire Lord.

Azula walked over to the Academy and noticed that Naruto's class was outside, yet again. So far, Naruto hadn't gotten into a fight with Sasuke. That was impressive. She stood by the fence that separated her from them. It took ten minutes for Sasuke to do something to make Naruto angry and start attacking him. Like last time, the teachers didn't do anything.

That was their first mistake. Naruto had gotten faster over two months, when he last fought Sasuke. He could control his emotions better now. He wasn't fueled by pure rage this time. Instead, Sasuke had said that Naruto couldn't beat him and Naruto was determined to prove him wrong. His moves were a little more graceful but he was a lot faster. He even nailed Sasuke in the face with a nice left hook. His forms that he was using were very close to firebending forms but with some sort of twist. It seemed like Naruto had combined the intensity and attack of firebending with the quick and evasiveness of airbending. That interested Azula because it just worked so well. The teachers finally stopped the two boys before jutsu's came into play which was good for Azula, she didn't want to fight before she left on her mission.

When the boys were pulled apart, Azula hopped the fence to help restrain Naruto. "I can take it Iruka-sensei." Her old sensei turned around and just nodded.

"Azula! Whats up?" Naruto stopped struggling instantly when he saw his sister.

"I have a mission. I'm going to Grass Country. I had to tell you before I left. I should be going actually. I just needed to tell you."

Naruto nodded. "Ew, Grass Country." The blonde boy shared her dislike of that country. But he disliked a lot of thing she did. He also did everything he could to be like her, except firebend and copy her hairstyle. He did have a red shirt and black ninja sandals though. Was he wearing his red shirt now? No, it was his white one with the swirl but he did have one.

"I know. Just had to tell you. Anyway, I have to go. Bye." The two hugged and Azula left the Academy.

Azula spent more time at the Academy than she probably should have so she made up time by running over the roofs of Konoha so she could make it to the gate in time.

The market was busy, as always, and some of the shinibi that had come for the chunin exams were enjoying their last days in the village by purchasing things there. Konoha had very good food that almost everyone loved, this included Ichiraku's Ramen. Every time Azula went there with Naruto, there was never a seat for them. Lucky for those two, Teuchi would let them eat in the back and help make Ramen with his daughter, Ayame, who Azula decided was going to go with her to the Fire Nation so she could eat ramen a lot.

Azula was the last of her teammates to reach the gate. Izumo and Kotetsu were sitting against the wall playing junken and their sensei wasn't present. Kurenai was there. Kurenai was different though. She wasn't wearing her vest anymore. Instead she was wearing something that Haruno showed her when they went to go get Azula's clothes two years ago.

It was a sort of dress. It consisted of a red mesh armour shirt with only the right sleeve visible. Over the shirt is some sort of material that looked liked bandages with a rose thorn pattern. Her hands had wrappings on them and so did her upper legs. She was a brand new Kurenai in that outfit.

"Woah Kurenai. You look like a completely different you in that outfit... Why you wearin' it?" Azula asked her aunt. She walked over to her aunt and inspected it. It fit her, that was for sure. The pattern on it reminded the younger girl of Kurenai's Genjutsu.

"Well you see," Kurenai started. She wasn't exactly sure how to tell Azula that she was promoted but she deciede that being blunt would work best. "I just got promoted to Jonin. So I decided to splurge on myself and get this outfit." The woman explained. "A jonin has to have a cool outfit, right?"

"Well duh!" Azula replied. She approved of the outfit. "I like it. Nice choice. Oh, and Congrats and all of that stuff."

"Yeah thanks..." Kurenai replied. Azula seemed more interested in the outfit that the fact that she was promoted which in turn would bring them more money for things. "You know that since I'm promoted, we can eat out more, right?"

Azula looked at her aunt. "More ramen?" She asked her. Those golden eyes of hers were now bright and hopeful. Naruto was certainly rubbing off on her.

"I'll get you as many bowls as you can eat when we get back."

If Naruto were here, he would have jumpped for joy. Instead Azula just nodded and said, "Awesome." She kept nodding for a few seconds until sometihng hit her. "Wait, we? Team Eight has a mission. You're not on Team Eight..." Kurenai just smiled.

By this time, Kotetsu and Izumo had joined the two females. The two were curious about their sensei and where the hell her was. Usually Hayate was there before any of the kids. This time Azula's Aunt had gotten ther before them.

"Hayate is needed elsewhere for a mission so I'm going to be your 'sensei' for this mission." Kurenai explained, "But you don't need to call me sensei. Just call me Kurenai."

"I was planning to." Azula responded seriously.

Kurenai just rolled her eyes. Hitting the girl over the head would be a waste of time and effort that this point in time. "We need to improve your attitude." She muttered. Azula just waved her off. Kurenai expected that though. "So, did Hokage-sama explain the mission to you three?"

"He told us it was an escort mission." Kotetsu said.

"Yeah. He said we had to escort the Grass Country Officials back to their home," Izumo added.

"And that we were picking his son up from some temple place." Azula finished, "Something about bringing him home after some battle thing involving the Twelve Guardians something something." She was still in a bad mood about going to Grass Counrty so she tuned out the Hokage as best she could when he was speaking.

"Well you guys got the gist of things." The Jonin replied. "After we escort the Grass officials back home, we will be going to the Fire Temple, where Sarutobi Asuma is staying. He was one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja that protected the Daimyo. He's been in that temple for a couple of years now after some of the Guardians tried to stage a Coup d'etat. It failed and now Sarutobi-san has been staying in the Fire Temple with a fellow Guardian. We are bringing him back. Nobody really know where he is so it's pretty safe." Kurenai explained. "We're just doing back to back C ranked missions. You got that?" The three nodded. They had zoned out somewhere in the short explanation but nodded anyway. Kurenai suspected that they stopped listening at some point. "Good, tell me what we're doing then."

All three of them audibly gulped and scrampled to come up with something. Soon Izumo and Kotetsu started stuttering. Azulakept her cool and started to answer but Kurenai just started laughing at them. "Didn't think I'd catch you huh?" She asked them they all hung their heads. "You can't zone out like that. If you do, it could mean your death." The members of team eight just remained silent. They were all quiet for about five minutes until Azula broke the silence.

"Where ARE the Grass Officials?" Azula asked in her most annoyed voice that she could muster.

Kurenai looked back to the village. There was nobody coming toward the group of shinobi. She studied the large crowd. Everyone in the village seemed to be doing their own things. All of the genin looked over the crowd of people.

"They're probably being late to piss you off Azula." Izumo said with a smirk.

"Considering the way you acted at the Final Exam, I'd be late to piss you off too." Kotetsu added truthfully.

Azula growled and her hands flared up. "I guess I will have to remind them who is the princess of the FIRE Nation." Instantly her teammates took water from their canteens and put Azula's hand fires out. Then they put it back in their canteens.

"Hime!" Kurenai hissed. She had started using Azula's nickname/mission name. "You can't do that." Azula responded with a growl. Kurenai grabbed her. "Well since they haven't gotten here yet c'mere." Azula looked at her aunt. The woman grabbed Azula and started messing with her perfect topknot. She undid the hairtie that kept it in place and started to put it in a messier topknot. Kurenai started to tease her hair and messed it up. After a few minutes, Kurenai was satified with her job and stepped away. Then she took some eyeliner from a hidden pocket in her new dress and started making Azula's whisker marks (that she had carved into her face two years ago) bolder and a little scarier.

"Perfect!" Kurenai exclaimed.

"Perfect timing." Azula commented looking into the village. Kurenai looked in and saw the Grass Country Officials approaching the group.

When the officials got there, the Grass Daimyo approached them. "I would like to thank you all very much for doing this and-" he stopped when he looked down at the three genin. "I thought we would be getting a good team to protect us."

"They are good." Kurenai replied calmly. 'I thought they requested team eight... Hokage-sama! He did this on purpose!'

"She looks like she is seven and they boys look like they just graduated." The Daimyo commented.

"Hime is eight if you must know. And Izu and Kote are eleven. They graduated a few monnths ago but they are also one of Konoha's top genin team." Kurenai said truthfully. "They would have, without a doubt, made it to the final exam is they entered."

The Daimyo scoffed, "I don't believe you."

"You don't have to sir. They will prove it in time." Kurenai replied. "Just wait and see... Now, I believe you wanted to go home?"

The Daimyo nodded curtly and returned to his group. He stepped into a palanquin, something Azula recognised instantly, and disappeared from view. A jonin then stepped forward. Kurenai assumed that he was the leader of the Grass Genin team that participated in the Chunin Exams. Behind him were his team and Kusajin Jun. Azula almost lit her hands up at the sight of the boy.

"How are you organizing your team?" He asked her, "I'll organize mine aroung yours."

"We will be doing a diamont formation." She told him. "Hime-" She pointed to Azula, "-will be in the front." Then she pointed to Izumo and Kotetsu, "Those two will be on the sides and I'll take back."

The jonin nodded. "Alright. I'll put these two," He pointed to the Kusajin boys, "In the middle but toward the front by her. And the other two will be behind your boys. I'll stay in the front direstly behind your girl just in case."

Kurenai nodded, "That sounds good. Just warn the Kusajin siblings not to mess with Hime."

"Will do... is she a princess? Jun really dislikes princesses."

"Yeah... she is." The jonin audibly gulped. "Best warn him I would think." The guy nodded.

"This will be a fun mission..." He told her.

"Yeah..." Kurenai muttered. "Fun." She looked over to see Azula, who was already at the point of their diamond formation. She was doing her best not to kill everyone right now. "Fun..." The newly appointed jonin whispered to herself before taking her position.

**You know the drill. Drop me a review. If anyone wants to name the younger Kusajin, send me a name and I'll think about it. Any predictions about what will happen next? XD**


	3. Can you tell I'm lying?

**Hey all. Sorry for the delay! And thanks Cheshire for being the only reviewer on my last chapter. I'm sad I didn't get more but oh wellz. Here's the next chapter. I got really lazy but I finished it on my car ride to Boston. YAY BOSTON! I warn you, this is pretty suckish. Here you go! **

The forest was oddly quiet. There were no sounds of crickets chirping, cicadas making their strange noises, no crunching or rustling of leaves or sticks either. There were no animals around this part of the forest, or so it seemed. Usually the forest at night was like a symphony, now it seemed like a fermata* over a rest.

The only sounds were the snores coming from the large sleeping party in the forest and the occasional popping of the fire. One member wasn't asleep though. She was wide awake on watch duty. Since she only had to watch from four AM to six AM, it was an easy watch for her as she always woke up at down, which would be in the next hour. So far nothing had happened, which was always a bad sign in anyone's book. It usually meant someone or something was planning something.

Sure enough, someone was plotting something. This something came in the form of Kusajin Jun. He walked out of his tent as silently as possible and quickly placed a kunai knife to the watcher's neck. The boy smirked, thinking he had caught the younger girl off guard. Unfortunately for him, that was not his target. The last thing the boy would remember from that incident was the 'target' disappearing in a cloud of smoke befoer his world turned to black.

"You'd think after two years, he would have aquired some decent skills in stealth." A voice said from behind his unconsious body. It was the girl on watch duty.

"You'd think." An older feminine voice replied to her. Kurenai was sitting in a tree where she was going to get some extra hours of sleep, but obviously life didn't want her to do so. "Very nice clone, Hime." Her niece's clones were getting better and better. The woman thought that in a year or two, she would be able to learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu.

"Thank you." The girl replied. Azula always liked using clones. They were very fun to use. She walked over to Jun and slapped him a few times. "Wake up." The girl ordered. The boy just laid there. There was a small line of drool trailing down his face.

"Just leave him there." Kurenai suggested. The idea wasn't half bad. Azula looked down to the boys hand. It still heald the kunai in it so it would be some sort of evidence against him is she chose to do something about it.

"Why don't you get some sleep." Azula tokld he aunt. "I'll wake you if anything happens." The jonin didn't need to be told twice. Within seconds, Azula could hear sorft snores coming from her aunt.

The genin looked up at the sky. It was still dark but it was cloudless. She could eassily see the stars . She loved the stars. They looked the same everywhere. She could be in Konoha, or in the middle of the woods in Fire Country or even in the Fire Nation, and the stars were still the same. Sometimes, the princess would imagine that her family back in the Fire Nation would be looking at the starts like she was adn maybe they were thinking about her too. It was the same with the moon. She wondered if her family looked at the moon when she did. She wondered if they missed her. The Fire Nation Princess would never admit it, but she missed her family. Never.

She stared at the sky until dawn. When the sun rose, every ounch of tiredness went away and she felt alive and invigorated. The tiny girl produced fire in her hands and smiled with glee. She had no idea what she would do without her bending. Azula looked over to the tents where everyone was sleeping and then to the tree where her aunt was. All were asleep. Well, Kurenai probably wasn't but Kurenai also could go for three days since she had taken a soldier pill so Azula didn't really care about her.

Since it was dawn and Azula was feeling wide awake, she decided it would be best to run over every firebending Kata that she could before the others awoke. She started with her breathing excersizes. Breathing was always the number one thing in Firebending. Ever since she had become a shinobi, she had always worked hard to keep her breathing in check. Something difficult to do. She still did it perfectly though. It's Azula, of course she is perfect.

After breathing was the simple moves, flaming punches and kicks. Slowly she pushed herself to her katas, the basics, and then her advanced sets. Azula hadn't mastered all of the advanced sets yet, but she was only eight. Having half of the sets down by now was ahead of her schedule. By age ten or eleven she wanted to have mastered all of the advanced sets on top of a few of her own on top of becoming a chunin.

The young girl was about finished with her last set when she heard a tent un zip. Unfortunately she was in the middle of a double back tuck which immediately went into and low sweep which spewed fire from her legs. If she didn't go into the sweep she could break a leg since she had so much momentum from the round off back handspring that it could be bad. Azula landed her back tuck and went into the low flame sweep which sent an arc of fire away from her.

When she spun around from the kick, she came face to face with none other than Kusajin Jun's younger brother. The boy had not seen any of the flames but he did see Azula spin with her leg out like she was practicing a low sweep. His sleepy eyes didn't catch the bright flames flying in the opposite direction.

"Oh... Its you." He said when the girl turned around.

"Well I did have this watch." Azula replied in a snarky tone. "Why are you awake so early. Nobody wakes up at this hour with a few exceptions."

"Why are you up?" He asked her.

"I'm an exception." _Obviously... _The boy was stupid. "And I also had this watch dumbass. I don't sleep on watch. Only incompetent ninja do that." She smirked at the boys guilty face. Kurenai had the shift after him. She hadn't fallen asleep because of the soldier pills, but the kid did. Ten minutes after he started watching. "Why are you awake?"

The boy rubbed his eyes. "Jun wasn't in the tent and I wanted to see where he was." Azula tore her eyes away from the pathetic sight of him and looked at Jun who was lying face down on the ground by her with a kunai in his hand. The younger Kusajin couldn't see his brother since he was on the other side of the tents, which was probably good. "Have you seen him?"

Azula looked back at the boy. "I saw him a few hours ago." She said, not lying, "I haven't heard him since then. " Also not a lie.

The boy shrugged. "I guess I'll wait for him to come back." He seemed like a lost puppy without his big brother. It disgusted Azula. He seemed so pathetic. She was glad he didn't make chunin. It would have made her feel like shit.

The kid sat down in front of the now dead fire. Azula watched him stare into the down cold coals. He tried to move closer to them, apparently he was cold. Not that it surprised Azula. He was wearing a wife beater and tan cargo shorts with his headband on the side of his head and blue shinobi sandals. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering. Azula didn't know why though. The forest was cool, she didn't deny that, but it wasn't that cold. Then again, she was a firebender and she had her inner fire so she never got cold, even if it snowed.

The girl sighed. If she were acting like the princess she was, she would just ignore the boy and throw kunai and shuriken for fun. unfortunately, her aunt and brother had taught her to be a kind and loving person... well, they just tried to make her be nicer. The girl was still a little bit of a bitch. When the boy turned away, she breathed fire onto the bed of coals. just to be safe, she held her hands in the tiger formation so that he would think it was a jutsu if he had caught the fire breathing.

After the coals caught fire, the Kusajin jumped up in shock. He looked at Azula and then back to the fire, then to Azula and back to the fire and then to Azula again. He repeated this action several times until it finally sunk in his head that she lit the fire for him. The fire had shot up so quickly that it singed half of his eyebrow and part of his hair off. He didn't notice though, and Azula did not plan on telling him that either. It was too funny.

"Thanks..." He mumbled to her. Azula shrugged in response. She decided that now since she couldn't firebend, she might as well do something productive. That is, practice kunai and shuriken throwing. Every few seconds and thunk of something hitting against a tree could be heard. It was that same thunking noise that started to wake people up.

Azula noticed people starting to vacate the tents and smiled. "Finally."

"Welcome back sir!" A guard at the Palace of the Grass Daimyo said to the Daimyo. "Did you enjoy your trip to Konoha sir? Any new chunin?" He asked him with a smile.

The Daimyo, who was not on the Palanquin anymore, nodded to the guard as he walked into his palace with the ninja following him. "It was pleasant. No new chunin I'm afraid, I don't know why only new Chunin were a Leaf and Sand chunin."

The guard looked at the four leaf ninja behind his leader. "Which one is the chunin?"

"I am." Azula answered seriously. Kotetsu and Izumo both snickered when theur team leader said that. It was a great joke. Kurenai looked at her niece and gave the girl a small smile. She thought it was a funny joke as well.

"You're a chunin?" The whole grass party asked her. Azula just nodded, she looked very serious. "She's lying..." The guard muttered while looking at the child.

"Does this face look like I'm lying?" Her face was very serious. Kurenai just smiled, she didn't bother to correct it. She was impressed at how good the girl's lying had gotten. Her facial expression never changed or wavered.

Everyone looked at the girl for a moment. "Um... no..." The others slowly started to agree. They didn't want to believe that the kids was a new chunin.

"Then I'm getting better at lying." Azula responded. Everyone proceeded to fall over comically. The Konoha ninja all fell apart laughing at the joke Azula made. "I wasn't even in the chunin exam! The ninja here must have bad memories."

Finally, Jun Kusajin had enough. Azula, Izumo and Kotetsu had been taunting him and his fellow grass shinobi through out the mission. Al three thought that they were superior to him, which obviously wasn't true. He came from the Noble Clan of Kusajin! That was the first ever clan established in the Grass Country. Nothing was better than him. Especially not these kids. The boy charged at Azula, kunai in hand and began to slash at her. His former teammates and Brother cheered him on as he attacked her.

Azula saw this coming and was able to dodge the initial attack, but the second slash she could not. That resulted in her getting cut along her jaw. It was a deep cut that went straight tot he bone. She hissed in pain. "Oh, it's on." She lunged at the boy but Kurenai caught her. The Grass Jonin had caught Jun and prevented him from harming the kid anymore.

"Terribly sorry." He muttered. Jun was squirming, trying to get free.

"Let me go! She deserves this! I want a duel right here, right now!" Jun yelled, his eyes full of rage.

"You want one?" Kotestsu asked him. "Your funeral!" Izumo finished. They high fived after that.

"You'll get your revenge. Just not now." Kurenai whispered to her.

Azula took a deep breath and calmed down. "I know why your ninja didn't become chunin." She said calmly. Everyone (with the exception of the jonin) raised an eye brow. "They don't think things through. They don't take time to plan anything. I saw that in all of the fights. They just wanted to win. None of them cared whether or not they showed all of their best attacks to the opponents. They just fought without thinking of consequenses." All four genin stood there mouth open wide. "And you are fueled too much by emotion. You let your anger over take you. Not to mention, all of your leadership skills suck. You let and eight year old take over this whole mission."

Izumo looked at Azula, who was still being held back by Kurenai. Then he looked to Kotetsu, "Aren't all of her attacks fueled by emotion?" He asked his friend.

Kotetsu nodded. "She just doesn't let the emotion control her." Izumo nodded.

Then there was silence for a moment. As most people would say, this was a awkward silence.

"So..." Jun started, he was still shaking with rage. "If you were in the Chunin Exams. Would you have become a chunin?"

Kotetsu and Izumo answered first, "Of course" "Duh." Azula looked over to them and grinned. Kurenai smirked.

"I don't know. I could have been." Azula replied simply. Everyone then looked to Kurenai whould be able to give an accurate judgement.

"She probably would have been. She could be a Chunin at the next Exams. Her Sensei won't put them in probably for two years though." Kurenai explained, "I said this once, but I will say it again... This is Konoha's best Genin team." She released Azula finally. She walked over to Kotetsu and Izumo and smirked. Her cut was still bleeding a lot but she didn't care. Her teammates did though.

The boys looked at each other before Izumo stood in front of Azula and Kotetsu. The spiky haired boy uncorked his water canteen and took some water out using his water bending. Kurenai knew that Waterbending could heal but she had never seen it. By the looks of it, the trio's bending skills were something to keep secret.

"That good huh?" The Daimyo asked Kurenai, impressed.

Kotetsu finished healing Azula's cut. She didn't feel even the least bit sore. Azula nodded her thanks to her teammate and let Izumo know that she was healed. The boy examined his friend's handiwork and nodded. Kotetsu was the better healer out of the two.

"This genin squad is as sood as the squad that had the Yellow Flash... If not better."

**You know the drill. Drop me a review!**


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